What We’re Reading

New York Times reporters and editors are highlighting great stories from around the web. You can receive What We’re Reading by email, and let us know how you like it at wwr@nytimes.com.

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CreditDavid Goldman/Associated Press

7 Days

From The Enquirer and Cincinnati.com: It was “a week like any other” in Cincinnati and its suburbs: at least 180 opioid overdoses, 18 fatal ODs, 15 babies born with medical problems due to their mothers’ heroin abuse. A team of 60 reporters, photographers and videographers covered it hour by hour, capturing scenes in courtrooms, treatment centers, hospitals, jails, halfway houses and a funeral parlor. Recordings of 911 calls included one from a tearful 11-year-old girl who couldn’t get her father to wake up. The package is so vivid, so brimming with powerful details that lay bare the consequences of the opioid epidemic, that I read it twice. — Abby Goodnough, health care reporter

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CreditJacquelyn Martin/Associated Press

Under Review

From The New York Times: On Thursday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced that she planned to rewrite the rules of how colleges deal with sexual assault to protect both the victims and the accused. It was her attention to the rights of the accused — whom she believes have been deprived of due process in these campus investigations — that caused the biggest reaction from writers from the left, right and center. — Anna Dubenko, senior digital strategist

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CreditJacquelyn Martin/Associated Press

False Premises

From The Atlantic: This story has triggered some heated discussion on social media. Emily Yoffe, an experienced and highly respected journalist, explores how the bad science behind some of the conventional wisdom about rape may be hurting women. — Tara Parker-Pope, Well columnist

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More automated systems at the nation's airports are making it easier for travelers to beat the lines.CreditChip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Flight Risk

From Slate: Whether you’re a frequent flier or someone who avoids flying whenever possible, you’re likely to relate to something in this thoughtful piece. It opens Slate’s excellent “Terminal” series about air travel and observes that, for better and for worse, “The airport is the place to understand America today.” — Gina Lamb, senior staff editor, special sections

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CreditRex Features, via Associated Press

View More Comments

From Facebook: Yes, North Korea promises to obliterate us, the Middle East still is a hot mess and Congress remains trapped in its ongoing nervous breakdown. But there is an even more intractable problem that cries for a solution: What to do about that slug in the steam iron? Commenters really got inspired (and occasionally profane). — Michael Wines, national correspondent

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CreditOzier Muhammad/The New York Times

To Serve and Protect

From The New Yorker: Compelling read here about Bobby Farid Hadid, an Algerian merchant marine who came to the United States and, after 9/11, became a New York City police officer to protect his new country. For Hadid, who is Muslim, joining the force sounded like “paradise on earth.” He rose in the police hierarchy but his life began to erode when he questioned Police Department tactics. — Lynda Richardson, senior staff editor, Travel

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CreditTimothy A. Clary/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Not Funny Ha Ha

From Paste: Any illusions you might have had (I guess I had a few) that the world of New Yorker cartoonists is a realm of whimsy and delight will be shattered by Seth Simon’s piece about “Condé Nast’s acquisition and slow dismantling of their primary source of licensing revenue, the Cartoon Bank.” You’ll need some patience; the article seems almost to reach New Yorker epic length. — David W. Dunlap, former reporter

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CreditGetty Images

Time Travel

From The Times archives: There’s nothing new about questionable fashion trends (corsets, live goldfish in shoes, track suits), but one of the most dangerous was the hobble skirt. The long skirt’s narrow opening at the ankles caused the wearer to barely be able to walk (and led to accidents). This unbylined critique from 1910 traces the trend, and is also a model of period sexism. — Jennifer Parrucci, senior taxonomist